“I’ve left the instructions on the fridge door, okay? I’ve written them all out. And I showed you where all her food is kept. And – did I tell you which of her toys-”

“Hyung, go,” Wonsik flaps his hands in aggravation at his best friend, trying to shoo him out of his own house. “Go, for god’s sake, go.”

“No, but-” Hakyeon stops, eyes beginning to look suspiciously bright. Wonsik drops his forehead into his hand. “You’ll call me? If anything happens? Anything at all? And you’ll send me photos of her every day?”

The ‘her’ in question sits in Hakyeon’s arms in a halo of white fluff, glaring balefully at Wonsik as if she knows her beloved Hakyeon will soon be giving her over to Wonsik to look after for the next week while Hakyeon goes on holiday to Jeju in search of – verbatim – ‘sun, sand, sea, and hot boys’. Knowing Hakyeon, none of those things are going to be very difficult to find.

“Hyung,” Wonsik shakes his head. “Why don’t you just bring her along?”

“You know why, Hyewon’s allergic,” Hakyeon moaned. “Useless sister.”

“So come on.” Wonsik holds his arms open, but before Hakyeon can even pass him the dog Mandu starts growling low in . Hakyeon wilts, hugging Mandu to himself tightly once more.

“I can’t do it,” Hakyeon gasps.

“Then bye,” Wonsik says, making to grab his jacket and bag off the sofa and walking towards the door. “Have fun in Jeju with Hyewon and Mandu, if Hyewon doesn’t kill you.”

“No, no, don’t go,” Hakyeon takes a deep breath, putting Mandu down on the floor and grabbing his suitcase, refusing to look back. “You need to pet her every day, okay?”

“If she doesn’t try to bite off my hands,” Wonsik says agreeably.

Hakyeon gives Wonsik a brief, solid hug, and then wheels himself and his luggage quickly out of the apartment leaving Wonsik alone with a Mandu barking in distress.

“Stop looking at me like that,” Wonsik tells her after a brief stare-off. “You’re stuck with me for seven days so we might as well try to get along. I already think you’re adorable, so that’s a start.”

Mandu growls louder.

*

Mandu seems to be in a quandary – after quickly accepting the reality of her Hakyeon-less situation but refusing to acknowledge the hated Wonsik, playtime became confusing very fast. She wants to play; but in order to play she needs to play with Wonsik who is not worth her time or attention. Therefore, she has to play by herself. However, playing by herself does not produce the happiness and satisfaction output levels she’s been used to.

Wonsik watches Mandu throw her own ball and run after it, trying to play fetch by herself – he idly takes a video of her from where he’s lying on Hakyeon’s expensive sofa to send to Hakyeon; the very sam Hakyeon who has been in Jeju only a day and apparently has already charmed the pants off the son of the owner of his little hotel (‘figuratively, soon to be literally’ Hakyeon had messaged). Life isn’t fair. At least Wonsik gets to stay in Hakyeon’s pretty apartment while he’s gone.

Why aren’t you playing ball with her?? Hakyeon demands via text a minute after the video has sent.

she wont let me! Wonsik replies. u want to see the wounds i have just from trying to put on her leash just now to bring her out? i gave up.

YOU HAVENT WALKED HER YET?! comes the horrified reply, and Wonsik sighs. Maybe wearing rubber kitchen gloves would help.

Mandu perks up again at the sight of her leash, but then almost immediately begins growling once more when she realises the person who’s going to be walking her is still Wonsik the Repulsive.

“This isn’t it, Mandu,” Wonsik complains. “We have to work together. Cooperation is what we need to succeed in life. Do you understand? If we don’t put our differences aside you are getting no walks outside this week, and I am going to be killed by your dad when he comes home. Is that what you really want?” He puts on the rubber kitchen gloves and approaches her, wondering how a tiny dog that is more than three-quarters fluff can radiate so much furious indignance.

After two failed attempts, Wonsik gets the brilliant idea to distract her with a treat and slip the leash on her before she realises what’s happening – whether this trick will work twice, however, remains to be seen. The realisation that she’s been duped sends her into nonstop protest-barking, Wonsik laughing dramatically to himself in victory.

“Got you, cutie,” he tells her in singsong, and lets her preserve some dignity by preceding him out the front door.

*

For a small dog Mandu can move really fast, and Wonsik is half-panting by the time they’ve done one whole circuit of the park across the road from Hakyeon’s apartment.

“Are you running on some kind of nuclear energy or what?” He huffs at her, his power-walking barely a match for her stumpy legs moving at the speed of sound and her tail wagging even faster. “See, if you like this, we can do this every day when I come back from work. But not if you try to bite me every time I put on your leash.”

Mandu responds by stopping dead, Wonsik blinking in alarm. “Did I say something wro-”

She is off in a flash, barking like crazy and tugging the leash out of his unsuspecting hands as she zooms away like a bullet, Wonsik nearly choking in surprise. “Mandu!”

Oh my god, if I lose her Hakyeon will have my head on a spike, Wonsik panics, chasing Mandu around trees and over ‘Please Do Not Step On the Grass’ signs, dodging people exercising and children playing and praying fervently not to lose sight of the cotton ball with legs. “Mandu, stop!”

And stop she does, miraculously, in front of a man and his gigantic light brown chowchow puppy, jumping up against his jeans-covered legs and generally looking out of her mind with excitement and bliss. The chow stands by watching nonplussed, mirroring Wonsik’s own confusion as he jogs up to them, panting.

“I’m so sorry, she got away from me-” Wonsik apologises profusely as he bends over to grab Mandu’s leash trailling behind her on the ground, and when he straightens up properly to face the man Mandu is accosting his stomach immediately ties itself into knots.

Wonsik swallows, taking in how the most gorgeous man in Seoul is apparently here in this park standing before him and owns a chowchow pup, and is also staring at him with suspicion written clear as day all over his beautiful face.

“Wait, I know this dog,” he’s saying, picking Mandu up and checking her personalised collar – what a voice, what a voice – “and you’re not her owner. Who are you?”

“You know Mandu?” is the only thing Wonsik can think of to say. “No, um, I’m – I know Hakyeon. Hah, you know the dog and I know the owner. I’m looking after her-”

Mandu chooses this time to start barking fiercely at Wonsik with all the pent-up dislike she contains in her body, and the frown on the guy’s face deepens.

“No, no, look – I didn’t steal her or something, I swear – she hates me, but I can’t help it – look, I’ll show you I have Hakyeon’s phone number. I can show you his texts to me about looking after her. He’s on vacation.”

“Go on then,” Handsome Guy tells him, Mandu leaving off barking to begin his face in abject adoration. Wonsik feels like he can relate, somehow.

Wonsik quickly reaches into his pocket for his phone, showing Beautiful and Suspicious Hakyeon’s latest texts to Wonsik scolding him for not bringing Mandu out for her walk and the video he’d sent Hakyeon. Gorgeousness finally relaxes, and Wonsik lets out the breath he’d been holding, though it gets stuck in his throat once more when he realises he’s wearing the rattiest gray gym shorts and sweater combo he owns while the heavenly specimen before him looks like he’s stepped right out of the pages of a fashion magazine, perfect hair and all. Of all the damn luck –

“Sorry about that, but there’s been thefts, you know? Hakyeon and I, we belong to this dog owners’ group and we know people who’ve had their dogs stolen right from under their noses. Pedigree breeds especially, like Mandu.”

“Yeah, it’s okay, really,” Wonsik says, feeling like a blush is coming on and fighting very hard to stop it. “No chance of that happening with your dog, though, huh? I don’t even think I can lift him.”

Earth Angel smiles and Wonsik nearly swoons. He has dimples.

“Jjajangmyun is terrible. He’s so laidback there could be an earthquake happening and he’d barely be interested. Someone could come up right now and load him into a trolley and cart him off and he’d just be calmly enjoying the ride. He wouldn’t even look back at me.”

“Jjajangmyun?” Wonsik can’t help but laugh, and The Face That Could (Probably) Launch a Thousand Ships pretends to be offended.

“Hakyeon’s dog is called Mandu,” he points out. “It’s actually because he loves jjajangmyun. Don’t ask me why. Here-”

Dream Lover tries to pass Mandu back to Wonsik, but she puts up a barrage of protests so strong he falters, unsure of what to do. Wonsik eventually manages to take her into his arms with much difficulty while dying of embarrassment, the noise of her barking attracting the attention of everyone around them.

“I think you should put her down,” Fairy Prince says uncertainly. “Before she gives herself a fit.”

Wonsik takes his advice, this time holding on firmly to the leash so there’s no way she can get away from him again and wondering where he can hide his face from the bemusedly pitying look Supermodel is giving him.

“I’ve never seen her react like that to anyone,” he says, shaking his head in wonder. Wonsik gives himself a sarcastic mental pat on the back.

“I am a man of many talents, one of them making small dogs absolutely detest me,” Wonsik tries to joke, but Mandu’s incessant barking spoils the punchline. Prime Boyfriend Candidate gives him an awkward smile in return.

“Uh, well-”

“Yeah, I should bring her home now,” Wonsik says quickly. “Sorry about all this. Just – sorry. Bye.”

Wonsik walks away, willing Mandu to stop fighting him and cooperate at least until they get back to Hakyeon’s apartment, because he’s already burning up in shame for making himself look like a fool in front of someone that drop-dead gorgeous; as if someone who looks like that comes along every day and Wonsik didn’t just waste the potential of this meeting due to being dressed like a slob and also roundly put down by Mandu. If the guy also owns a dog he probably thinks Mandu’s complete and utter disapproval of Wonsik means something significant – though it doesn’t really matter because someone that goodlooking probably would never give someone like Wonsik the time of day, anyway.

Despair, Wonsik thinks, shaking his head at himself. Life really isn’t fair.

*

“Mandu wants me to die alone,” Wonsik tells Hakyeon over the phone later that night when Hakyeon videocalls for updates of his dog’s wellbeing, never mind Wonsik’s wellbeing. “She ran off today during the walk and found one of your friends from your dog group, apparently. The most amazingly handsome guy I have ever seen, but she made sure to make me look like the lowest scum from the deepest ocean in front of him. How come you’ve never mentioned him to me?”

“Who?” Hakyeon asks, voice curious.

“Why, how many ridiculously goodlooking people are in your dog owners’ group?”

“A few. Me being one of them.”

“Are you kidding me?”

“Just describe him, stupid.”

“About my height. Taller than you. Hair dyed a kind of honey brown. Big eyes, beautiful dimples. Really good skin. Deep voice. Owns a chowchow.”

“Oh, dimples – it’s Binnie.”

“Binnie?”

“Lee Hongbin. He’s alright.”

“Alright? Are you insane?”

“What? He’s not my type.”

“You’re crazy. From this day on I don’t know you anymore. You have the worst taste.”

“Just shut up and give the phone to Mandu.”

Wonsik dutifully holds the phone in front of Mandu who instantly perks up at Hakyeon’s face and voice, tail wagging madly and doing a little happy feet dance as Hakyeon coos at her. Wonsik can’t help but smile, really, feeling like the unconditional love of something as innocent as an animal must be one of the purest things on earth. The hate Mandu has for him is probably just as pure, though, it occurs to him, and Wonsik feels a pout coming on.

“There’s so many hot guys here,” Hakyeon tells him once he’s satisfied himself Mandu is well and thriving. “Hot girls in bikinis everywhere, too. You’d be in heaven if you were here, you lucky biual, you. I should bring you next holiday and maybe you’ll finally get a date this year.”

“Your next vacation will be in wintertime, Hakyeon,” Wonsik tells him drily, but grateful for the backhanded lookout from his best friend anyway.

“So? We’ll go to Australia.”

“Please don’t tell one of your ‘Down Under’ jokes,” Wonsik warns.

He tries giving Mandu treats by hand after Hakyeon has rung off, and holds a minor victory celebration when she takes the second one right from his fingers.

*

“Did you wait all day for me to come home from work?” Wonsik croons at Mandu, who gives him one look and then ignores him to continue with her walk. All he can see from his bird’s eye view of her is a round cotton ball head, short body and fluffy tail swishing from side-to-side in happiness, looking extremely busy in the way she rushes to inspect roadside flower pot to lamp post to dustbin to random clump of weeds growing out of the sidewalk.

“Cute,” he says to himself.

She stops in front of the convenience store he always goes to in order to thoroughly assess a pile of used boxes, and Wonsik lets out a sharp gasp as he sees the sign in the shop window.

“One box of ramyun for ten thousand won?”

He peers into the shop and sure enough, the cashier queue is more than half made up of people balancing a box of Shin ramyun and waiting in line.

“Ten thousand won??” Wonsik can’t believe his eyes or his luck. And then he looks down at Mandu, still sniffing around the cardboard and tugging on her leash so she can explore better.

“Damn it,” Wonsik mutters under his breath. He can’t bring her into the store on her leash or in his arms, and he’s afraid that by the time he gets home and deposits her then comes back here all the way all the ramyun will be gone. He looks at her again, and then looks at the wide cloth tote bag he’s carrying – it belongs to Hakyeon, and he’d grabbed it from where it was hanging behind the main door to carry Mandu’s stuff like her waterbottle and plastic bags in case he had to clean up after her. He remembered wondering why it was so weirdly-shaped on the way down in the lift, questioning Hakyeon’s general fashion sense. Now he questioned no longer.

He scoops Mandu up, earnestly whispering to her in a low voice. “Mandu, you have to be really quiet, okay? This will take less than ten minutes, tops. And you get to ride in a comfy bag, too, I’ll be carrying you carefully around like you’re Cleopatra. Do you understand? Can you do this for me? You’ll just be sitting quietly in this bag like this, see? You will be able to breathe fine. Just don’t pee, got it?”

Mandu stares back at him.

“Well, at least you’re not barking at me,” Wonsik mutters, lowering her carefully into the bag. She comes up just nicely to the top of the bag, not drowning inside it, and he picks her up under his arm with one hand stabilising her . He looks slightly odd, but no one would think at first glance he’s hiding a dog inside his bag in order to be able to buy ramyun on discount before it runs out.

“Are you okay? We’re going in,” he hisses at her in a stage whisper, and enters the shop. He makes a beeline for the ramen at the back of the store, gingerly balancing Mandu and the box and he’s halfway to the cashier, almost sipping at the cup of success, when Mandu starts barking the house down.

Wonsik freezes, almost dropping the ramyun as every single person in the small shop stops and turns to look at him in shock. His mind is a total blank, completely unprepared as to what to do in a situation where you’re caught smuggling illegal dogs into convenience stores, and it’s then that he makes eye contact with Hongbin across the aisle, Hongbin holding a tiny tree of broccoli in each hand and staring at him in wide-eyed disbelief.

Of course. Of course.

“Sir, do you have a dog in your bag?” A shop worker makes his way towards Wonsik with a determined look on his face, but Wonsik doesn’t wait around to be kicked out. He hands the box of ramyun to the worker with as much sangfroid as he can muster under the circumstances and walks out, Wonsik standing firm on the issue of Mandu desperately struggling and trying her best to get to Hongbin.

Once outside he steps behind the pile of boxes Mandu was previously enamoured with and sinks down into a crouch, the rush of blood to his head fueling his furiously embarrassed blush leaving him weak for a minute.

“I almost made it,” Wonsik whispers brokenly to Mandu, who’d poked her head out of the bag in his arms and is looking around for Hongbin. “Do you know how much a box of ramyun normally costs?”

Mandu barks back at him in strident complaint as if to say stuff your ramyun, I want a Hongbin, and Wonsik closes his eyes in sheer mortification.

*

I’m giving you a chance to confess what you did to my Mandu just now. Confess willingly and I’ll go easy on you comes the text from Hakyeon barely a minute after Wonsik makes it home with the traitorous Mandu and Wonsik doesn’t even question how he knows. Maybe the convenience shop cashier is part of Hakyeon’s dog owner group too.

whats the point of confessing when u alr know? Wonsik sends back, sulky enough to rebel.

I cannot BELIEVE you put her in a bag. SHE IS NOT GROCERIES.

ramyun was on offer :(

I DON’T CARE WHAT WAS ON OFFER!! what if she had suffocated, what if she’d gotten her poor little feet twisted in the bag, what if she’d gotten scared because it was all dark and she couldn’t see?

she was perfectly fine! Wonsik types back, but is starting to feel terribly guilty nevertheless. He looks over at Mandu lying on her back on the carpet, staring at the television as he rubs her stomach with a foot – she seems to have accepted the compromise that as long as she doesn’t actually see that it’s Wonsik that’s petting her, petting is thereby allowed. “Sorry, Mandu baby,” he tells her with remorse, and adds his other foot for maximum belly massage satisfaction.

Binnie told me she was barking like crazy. Don’t try to lie to me about her being fine.

Wonsik resignedly rolls himself into a ball of humiliation on the sofa. So that’s how Hakyeon found out. Of course.

one, im pretty sure hes the reason she was barking in the 1st place, and two, how can u believe him over me?

Why the hell would she be barking because of him?

he smells good?????? idk???????

This is not over, Kim Wonsik.

fine, cha hakyeon. i love you~

Don’t even try that with me right now.

*

It takes seven Mandu-selfies and two days for Hakyeon to stop wanting to murder Wonsik, after which he extracts promise after promise not to ever even think of carting Mandu around like that again. Wonsik promises, and swears, and makes oaths upon oaths. All of it is for nothing, of course, because on the second day he drops food colouring on her.

Wonsik goes as still as a stone, staring in a daze as the red food dye soaks into her pristine white fur from where she’s looking pleadingly up at him and trying to get at the (cheat’s version) red velvet cake batter he’s putting together on the kitchen counter. His hand twitched, the tablespoon full of dye jerked, and now there’s three – no, four – spots of bright red staining Mandu’s cotton pompom head. 

Wonsik can’t remember how to breathe.

Hakyeon’s going to kill me. Hakyeon’s going to kill me. Hakyeon’s going to kill me. Hakyeon’s going to kill me. Hakyeon’s going to kill me. Hakyeon’s going to kill me. Hakyeon’s going to kill me.

Wonsik drops the spoon in a panic and sweeps Mandu up in his arms, Mandu giving a surprised yelp as she is suddenly transported with great speed towards the bathroom. Once she sees the bathtub, however, she immediately makes her opposition known at great volume and scrambles out of Wonsik’s arms, scratching him all over in the process. She makes a run for it, and Wonsik spends the next ten minutes of his life extricating her from under the sofa while dying slowly of multiple heart attacks.

“Mandu, please,” Wonsik begs, almost in tears. “You don’t understand, but you cannot be red. You absolutely cannot be red. Please, please work with me here.”

He finally succeeds in getting hold of her, but by the time he puts her firmly into the bathtub and turns on the shower the dye has dried. Wonsik tries his best to wash it out first with water and then dog shampoo, but to no avail – part of Mandu’s head is irretrievably polka-dotted bright red.

While Mandu stands glowering at him in the bathtub, a fraction of her previous size because most of her bulk is made up of fur when dry and it all deflates when wet, Wonsik frantically googles how long it takes food dye to come off dog fur.

Depending on how dark you tint your dog’s fur, it usually takes 4 to 6 weeks before it completely washes out and your dog’s fur is back to its normal colour.

*

“This should do it,” Wonsik mutters, tying a scarf around Mandu’s round head so that not only does she look completely adorable like a tiny little canine grandmother going to the market, but it totally hides the terrible red stains. After a sleepless night of trying to think of how to explain to Hakyeon how Mandu magically developed polka dots he resigned himself to his fate and decided he’s just going to hide them and let Hakyeon find out on his own; by the time Hakyeon comes home and discovers her fur Wonsik should be far enough from his apartment. Maybe he can go stay with a non-mutual friend until Hakyeon is off the warpath.

 It’s day five. Hakyeon will be back in two days.

“Okay, let’s go,” Wonsik attaches her leash – small mercies; Mandu has stopped fighting him before their walks. In comparison to her earlier behaviour she’s become practically loving – and trudges out the door. “Where shall we go today, little baby?”

Mandu barks.

“Follow you? Okay,” Wonsik agrees. It’s funny how when you know your death is nigh you become so much more amiable, Wonsik muses. He’s going to die at Hakyeon’s hands in two days so he might as well take it easy for now.

He lets Mandu meander around the neighbourhood, keeping her on a long leash so she can move around freely. She attracts quite a lot of attention in her little babushka, people actually stopping to point and smile. Wonsik waves at them, trying to spread a little bit of positivity before he leaves this earth.

When she starts barking like a maniac Wonsik doesn’t even blink. Of course it’s Mandu’s one true love Lee Hongbin, strolling home from work. The setting sun glints off his honey caramel hair, turning it gold, and the slight breeze ruffles it such that it catches the light even more. He looks like an angel, and Wonsik has nothing left to lose.

Wonsik lets Mandu run up to Hongbin and throw herself at him, the expression on his face serene even as Hongbin looks back at him apprehensively.

“I know you told Hakyeon I put her in my bag,” Wonsik starts, zen and cool as many cucumbers. “It’s okay. I know now I was wrong, and blinded by ramyun. I promise to never do it again.”

“That’s good,” Hongbin answers cautiously, picking Mandu up and sending her into another frenzy of bliss.

“You might be glad to know she doesn’t hate me as much anymore,” Wonsik beams.

“Even better,” Hongbin nods, Mandu and scritching her underneath her chin. Unfortunately – and really, given Wonsik’s latest streak of misfortune especially whenever Hongbin is around he should have expected this – the scarf catches on a ring Hongbin’s wearing, and is neatly pulled off her head as it is tugged along the path of his hand over her body. Hongbin goggles at her head as her avant-garde modern art fur is revealed, gasping audibly.

“Is that – that’s not blood, is it? What the hell have you done to her?”

“Blood?” Wonsik’s pessimistic calm shatters instantly and irrevocably, struggling to process the horrified look on Hongbin’s face. “Blood?? It’s not blood, it’s food dye!”

“What?” Hongbin demands incredulously, holding Mandu away from Wonsik protectively.

“I didn’t try to dye her, I was making red velvet cake!”

Hongbin stares at him, not knowing whether to believe him or not. “Hakyeon’s going to kill you,” he says flatly, and Wonsik lets out a long, defeated sigh, closing his eyes and slumping his shoulders against his inevitable fate.

“I know.”

Wonsik bends over to pick up the scarf that’s fallen to the floor and sadly contemplates Mandu sitting pretty in Hongbin’s arms. “I’m so sorry, little baby.”

Hongbin frowns, looking between drooping kicked puppy Wonsik and the actual puppy in his arms.

“Look,” he begins, his tone sounding like he’s hoping really hard he isn’t going to regret whatever he’s going to say. “I think we can cut away a bit of the fur that’s stained the worst? I’ve got grooming scissors at my place, I can bring it over to Hakyeon’s.”

“Really?” Wonsik blinks. “Why would you do that? I mean – it’s so nice of you, but-”

“Seeing Mandu like this pains me,” Hongbin deadpans.

“Oh,” Wonsik says, and blushes nonetheless.

*

Hongbin leaves to go to his apartment to get the grooming tools – the next condo over from Hakyeon’s – and once home Wonsik runs around the house in a panic making sure there isn’t dirty underwear or used towels strewn about the place. Mandu watches him from the carpet, barking intermittently what Wonsik chooses to imagine are words of support in dog language.

“Mandu princess, I don’t know what your current feelings towards me are,” Wonsik pants as he bustles to the kitchen to throw away empty snack packets. “But right now you may be ensuring my future happiness if the next few hours go well. Somehow I don’t know if I should thank you for always making me look like a helpless idiot in front of Hongbin, but thank you anyway.”

Mandu snuffles, laying herself down to rest as if to say ‘my work here is done’.

When Hongbin knocks on Hakyeon’s door half an hour later Wonsik has worked himself up into a froth of nervousness, and his slightly wet hair and freshly-bathed soap scent that accompanies Hongbin into the apartment doesn’t help matters. Wonsik curses himself for not thinking of having a shower too, the grime from his work day still coating him like a second skin. He tries not to shiver at the image.

They bring Mandu into the kitchen – Mandu joyfully jumping into Hongbin’s arms the way Wonsik would rather like to do as well – and Wonsik holds her steady on the kitchen table as Hongbin goes to work with his scissors. Wonsik finds himself watching Hongbin instead as he carefully snips away the red fur, trying his best to keep the shape of her fur landscaping – serious eyebrows and refreshing single eyelids, strong jaw, very very beautiful nose – Wonsik sighs.

“You okay?” Hongbin asks in his surprisingly deep voice without looking up, and Wonsik quickly swallows.

“Yeah. You’re doing a great job, thank you so much.”

Hongbin quirks his mouth in an amused half-smile, and Wonsik is ridiculously enthralled. He supposes it’s extremely shallow to be this taken with someone because of their looks given how he knows practically nothing about Hongbin beyond the fact that he owns a chowchow, fascinates small female dogs, and is apparently something of a snitch.

When Hongbin is done they both stand back and look at her. Hongbin really did try his best – most of the worst-stained parts are gone, but there are still some undeniably deeply pink areas that Hakyeon is going to notice as sure as the sky is blue and water is wet.

“I’m done for,” Wonsik says hollowly, and to his surprise, Hongbin starts to laugh until he’s hitting the table in his mirth. Wonsik tries to glare at him but Hongbin’s too pretty to be glared at, and plus – his laughing is adorable.

“I’m sorry,” Hongbin gasps. “It’s just – you’re a terrible dogsitter. First Mandu escaping you in the park, then putting her in the bag, then this-”

“I’ll have you know,” Wonsik begins with some heat, “The first two things are your fault. She ran away from me to find you, and then in the store she only started barking because she sensed you or some nonsense. We would have gotten away with it if you hadn’t been there buying your damn broccoli.”

This only makes Hongbin laugh harder, and by the time he’s finally sobered up and wiping tears out of his eyes Wonsik is completely in love.

They put Mandu down on the floor and clean up the table, Wonsik wondering how to propose marriage in a way that isn’t completely insane and figuring having a beer together might be a good first step.

“Want one?” he says, holding out a can of Cass from the open fridge, and Hongbin smiles his acceptance, his dimples seriously screwing with Wonsik’s equilibrium. Wonsik carries both their beers to the living room – he’s nothing if not a gentleman – and the moment they sit down on the sofa Mandu jumps up onto it with them, something she’s never done before. Wonsik assumes she’s going to make herself comfortable in Hongbin’s lap, but then the unexpected happens.

She settles down with her head on Wonsik’s thigh and all time comes to a stop. He forgets the beers in his hands, he forgets that he’s sitting next to a god in human form, he forgets that he’s going to die in two days when Hakyeon comes back and sees that his Mandu is no longer white but pink – because said Mandu has just laid her head down on Wonsik’s thigh, and even if it means that she has merely upgraded him from ‘a waste of space’ to ‘headrest’ it feels like he’s just won the Olympics, ten different Daesangs as well as the lottery.

“Are you crying?” Hongbin asks, sounding dangerously like he’s going to start laughing again.

“No,” Wonsik sniffles. “I’m not crying at all. I think – my sinuses-”

Hongbin takes his can of beer from Wonsik, his eyes twinkling, and leans back into the sofa without his eyes leaving Wonsik’s face.

“Do you want to get dinner together?”

“But I can’t move,” Wonsik says, turning a horrified face to Hongbin, gesturing at Mandu.

Hongbin really does burst into laughter this time. “Let’s call in delivery, then.”

“That works,” Wonsik answers weakly, the fact that Hongbin is actually voluntarily spending more time than is needed with him impressing itself very deeply and urgently onto his consciousness.

“Jjajangmyun or jjampong? Let’s both say it at the same time. One, two, three – jjajangmyun!”

“Jjajangmyun!”

“Awesome,” Hongbin smiles, fishing out his phone.

“You’re awesome,” Wonsik breathes.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“Do you want sweet and sour pork with it?”

“I do,” Wonsik says fervently. “I really, really do.”

*

(Two days later Hakyeon comes home to find a pink Mandu ecstatic that he’s back, and calls Wonsik to yell at him for forty minutes straight about it. Wonsik doesn’t care. Wonsik’s in temporary hiding at Hongbin’s place, petting Jjajangmyun the giant chowchow pup who happens to downright love him; it’s just destiny by this point.

“When I marry your dad,” Wonsik whispers to him when Hongbin’s in the bathroom, “You and Mandu can be the ring bearers. Okay?”

Jjajangmyun whuffles happily.)